Lifeweaver has been in Overwatch 2 for slightly below a month, and already the plant-based assist hero has had some fairly important reworks in each his management scheme and talents. Personally, I’ve had a a lot better expertise with the character since his final replace, nevertheless it seems like Blizzard is planning extra adjustments because it tries to determine the place the character ought to match into its in style hero shooter.
In a brand new submit on the Overwatch web site, director Aaron Keller talked in regards to the crew’s mindset concerning Lifeweaver transferring ahead. Whereas they’ve made some enhancements to his therapeutic output (he now has one of many increased ones within the sport), the crew says adjustments like tightening the unfold on his offensive alt-fire Thorn Volley haven’t had a lot impact on his kill charge. On the intense aspect he additionally has one of many lowest dying charges of any assist hero, so I’m glad to listen to you all took my recommendation and are retaining your distance from the struggle.
All that mentioned, Keller says the crew remains to be trying to higher determine Lifeweaver’s meant function within the sport, which is precisely what I’ve been attempting to do since he joined the roster. Earlier than Lifeweaver, Baptiste and Brigitte had been my go-to assist characters relying on my crew’s make-up and the map sort, however Lifeweaver appears like this very situational character that I principally run simply because he’s new, I like him as a personality, and his equipment is enjoyable, reasonably than as a result of his utility feels objectively higher than the opposite choices.
His skills—like Petal Platform, which raises a participant to excessive floor, or the controversial Life Grip, which pulls an ally to Lifeweaver’s place—are greatest used inside a coordinated crew. The difficulty is, most randos on-line don’t perceive or don’t care about how they will create efficient performs, and it appears like most simply need assist gamers to behave as heal bots, reasonably than leaning into extra diverse assist skills. It appears like my teammates, and generally myself, don’t know easy methods to coordinate round Lifeweaver, so I can see why Blizzard hopes to make his very best function clearer in Season 5.
Keller continued:
On the subject of future adjustments for Lifeweaver, right here’s what we’re considering. We wish it to be clearer why gamers might choose Lifeweaver over different heroes. In case your present hero decide isn’t working for some purpose (whether or not or not it’s the map or enemy crew comp), what’s a robust incentive for swapping to Lifeweaver? We might make different adjustments alongside the way in which, resembling calmly buffing his Thorn Volley and lowering hit volumes, however in the end, we’ll have adjustments focused at additional announcing Lifeweaver’s strengths and clearly defining his function in your crew. This may very well be leaning tougher into his therapeutic effectiveness by a brand new passive or bringing extra advantages to a few of his utility-focused skills. With a defensive-based hero, we now have to watch out how far we go by way of buffing uncooked therapeutic and defensive skills – too far can negatively disrupt the general move of an engagement. These are a few of the early issues we’re iterating by, hope to have our subsequent set of adjustments prepared for Season 5.
Even when Lifeweaver first debuted, I figured he can be a personality that may evolve an important deal over time, just like Symmetra, whose moveset has modified greater than as soon as since she debuted on the unique Overwatch’s launch. As somebody who’s already put over a dozen hours into Lifeweaver, I’m hopeful no matter adjustments come will assist him be the efficient assist character everybody needs him to be, as Overwatch 2’s beleaguered assist gamers might actually use some wins.